Nuala Foley
Portfolio Lead: Commercial and Partnerships
Nuala co-leads on our commercial and industry engagement with health tech companies and their networks, to support them and their business with their route into the NHS and further growth and spread.
She comes from an industry (mainly SME) background, having worked with companies across every sector with their innovation and commercialisation. In her role in KSS AHSN she overseas the Office of Life Science commission and represents KSS AHSN in the commercial directors national AHSN network.
Nuala has vast experience in navigating the funding landscape and in supporting companies to develop their strategic plan and to understand their customer base and value proposition for their target customer.
Dr Charlotte Roberts
Senior Programme Manager
Charlotte obtained her medical degree and BSc in International Health from UCL where her passion for population health and policy began. She completed the Foundation Programme at Oxford University Hospitals in clinical areas including respiratory, infectious diseases, ENT, neurosurgery, GP and paediatrics, followed by a NHS National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellowship seconded to Public Health England. Most recently she was Vice President for Standardisation at the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement driving value-based healthcare international through patient-centred outcome measurement. At KSS AHSN she co-leads the Industry and Technology Navigation team as well as support ICSs with their clinical priorities to best serve the needs of the local population.
Athina Lockyer
Programme Manager
Athina is dual qualified as a health visitor and adult nurse, and also has a PGCert in Leadership in Health and a Masters in Public Health Practice. She has also worked in quality improvement, digital record keeping and was a Darzi Fellow with Surrey County Council.
Athina is passionate about co-production and working collaboratively to improve patient outcomes using innovations and technology. She works across the region to support the spread and adoption of new evidence based technologies and the Kent and Medway STP workstreams.
Alastair Kirby
Programme Manager
Alastair provides support to our ‘Bridging the Gap’ and ‘Technology Navigation’ programmes, focusing on helping health tech companies navigate their route into the NHS.
Alastair has a background supporting start-ups and SMEs to grow and innovate within government accelerators. Having previously co-founded his own MedTech start-up, he has worked across multiple technology sectors to help companies scale and grow within the public sector.
Using his experience, Alastair supports innovators to develop their strategic business plans and understand their value for the NHS.
Alastair also has an academic background, having completed a Ph.D. in Neuro-oncology at King’s College London.
Jenny Partridge
Programme Manager
Jenny is a Programme Manager in the Industry and Technology Navigation Team. Her recent experience is in primary care, working in practice management and setting up the local PCN and federation.
She has worked on many primary care initiatives including a complete redesign of a practice and setting up a locality same day service. In addition, Jenny worked with Wessex LMC to advise and support practices, and with CQC as a primary care inspector.
Jenny’s introduction to quality improvement was at Mars Confectionery where she worked in production management and then HR. Using this experience, she ran her own business supporting SMEs.
She has recently completed an MBA in strategic leadership and is continually looking for ways to learn and share best practice.
Becky clack
Programme Manager
Becky spent her entire career up until now working in the NHS in numerous roles from admin assistant to contract manager to programme manager in various organisations, including an SHA, CSU, and CCGs.
She has spent the last 5 years working on cancer transformation at NHS England and joins us from a local ICS.
Becky has worked on many cancer initiatives, alongside clinical leads, and believes innovation can truly transform the NHS to support with the pandemic recovery and improve outcomes for patients. She is passionate about population health, prevention, and reducing inequalities, and looks forward to working with industry to support local systems to drive change in these areas.
Julian O'Kelly
Programme Manager
Julian brings a diverse range of skills and experience to the Tech Nav team. His Doctoral research combined music therapy with neuroscience methods, and he also holds a Masters in Palliative Care. Most recently he has programme managed NIHR funded research in mental health, and the development of virtual wards for both Surrey Downs Health Care and the Royal Surrey Foundation Trust.
Having worked across the NHS, academia, social enterprises and the voluntary sector, he understands from all sides the challenges innovators face engaging with these complex systems, and how best to develop value propositions that engage decision makers. His responsibilities will include supporting the Med Tech Funding Mandate across the region.
In his spare time, he is a keen musician, an allotment fanatic and new convert to mountain biking.
Catherine Young
Programme Manager
Cat is a Programme Manager in the Industry and Technology Navigation team at KSS AHSN. Her portfolio focuses on Team organisation and ‘Needs Articulation’; working with citizens and system partners to identify challenges that could benefit from innovative change, and then describing these needs and challenges in ways that industry can respond to, bringing innovators in to help co-develop solutions.
Cat joined KSS AHSN in 2019 as a Programme Coordinator and supported the Technology Navigation and ICS engagement team to understand and respond to system priorities. Cat has been involved in exciting transformation projects and led an improvement project aimed at ensuring reasonable adjustments underpin the annual health checks process for people with Learning Disabilities.
Prior to joining KSS AHSN, Cat worked in the private healthcare industry. She has a Masters in Oceanography.
Vivienne Gray
Programme Co-ordinator
Vivienne has worked across a broad range of public sector initiatives, spanning higher education, industry and business support to promote innovation, knowledge transfer and regional economic development.
Prior to joining KSS AHSN she worked for the Kent Surrey Sussex Local Enterprise Training Board.
Vivienne provides project coordination and communications engagement support to programme work streams with specific responsibility for the ‘Bridging the Gap’ and the ‘Technology Navigation’ programmes.